#37 - Boring Works for Business Marketing Agencies: When What Worked...Doesn't

In this episode of Over the Bull, Ken Carroll dismantles the obsession with “cutting-edge” marketing tactics and shiny new tools, arguing that the most effective strategy in today’s landscape is the one most businesses try to avoid: consistency, discipline, and doing the fundamentals exceptionally well.

From decades-old sales gimmicks to modern AI-fueled shortcuts, this episode exposes how quick fixes, hype-driven platforms, and abused automation are quietly eroding trust, credibility, and long-term business growth. Ken explains why credibility has become the real currency of the web—and why boring systems like structured websites, intent-driven service pages, proper schema, local citations, call tracking, and consistent content creation quietly compound into real momentum over time.

You’ll hear why momentum beats intensity, how “set it and forget it” marketing is costing businesses money, and what business owners should be demanding from their agencies right now—especially in an era where AI misuse is actively damaging otherwise healthy brands.

If you’re tired of chasing gimmicks, skeptical of easy promises, and ready to build something durable, trustworthy, and profitable, this episode is a reality check you don’t want to miss.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

You're listening to Over the Bull, where we cut through marketing noise. Here's your host, Ken Carroll.

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Boring is the most exciting thing you could have in marketing these days. Yep, I said it. Boring's in and innovative and cutting edge is just a gimmick on this episode of Over the Bull. Thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. And you know, the idea is that you know boring works. I mean, you already know this. Now, you'll call it referral business or things like that. But the idea is, you know, a lot of your leads come from the boring, mundane task of consistency and doing a great job and making sure that all your I's are dotted and your T's are crossed in day-to-day operations, and those lead to things like referrals. Now, I've been saying for the last, gosh, now about a year that your credibility is a new currency of the web. What I mean by that is that you've got to be dedicated to the boring stuff. Because the boring stuff is going to be what makes you consistent. It's the what they call cutting edge, or we have the latest and greatest widget or artificial intelligence tool that's going to revolutionize your business. Now, if you're an owner of a business, you probably have already bought or at least bit on some of these ideas. You know, we got this greatest thing, and it's particularly bad in the like uh roofers and uh plumber, especially plumbers and electricians, these kind of things pop in and out all the time where they promise they're going to deliver. And guess what? They don't. I mean, I investigate these tools all the time, and most of the tools that I've investigated are basically just sales pitches. And you know it, you know it, they sound good. You get in there, they sound really optimistic, they'll throw out an idea, a referral, or something like that, and it turns out to be nothing. Now, this is nothing new, it's just that the shiny new toys are new. What I mean by that is I can remember, gosh, maybe a couple decades ago going with a friend of mine to an e-commerce show, and they were selling these uh e-commerce systems. And I remember going in and they were talking about how easy it is to make money. And they would come in and they would uh present their e-commerce system and their uh partnerships where they could work wholesellers into agreements, and they were bringing the most desperate of the desperate in, and they were thinking that man, starting an e-commerce business is easy. It was a two or three-day show, and I remember the first day they just spoke easy, easy, easy, and uh some of this was selling like candy, usually to the most desperate or gullible of the bunch. And they would show a testimonial. I still remember it, it was a wheat germ kit, and they talked about this one guy who made all this money selling wheat germ kits using their system, and it came in. Then you go to the evening show, and guess what? We're talking about the wheat germ kit guy again. Next day, you guessed it, the wheat germ guy kit again. They had no other examples, but they kept banging the drum of the one to stir the imagination, just like buying a lottery ticket will stir your imagination, tempt you to spend a few bucks because what if it checks out, right? And so that's kind of what goes on in the real world. And as the owner of a business, you need to understand that you're going to be pitched many, many times through email, cold calls, through sales pitches, through trade shows, through whatever. And the next group is going to just know that they know that they've got the greatest thing, and if you buy it, it's going to transform your business. This is nonsense. Where businesses succeed is in the trenches. It's the hard work, it's the systems, it's the reliability, it's being there when you need to be there. That's what it is. And over a period of time, momentum builds, and as momentum builds, your business grows, and that's done through consistency. Now, when it comes to the internet, there is no doubt artificial intelligence is making huge waves. I mean, I use Chad GPT more than ever. Now, not to write those blog articles, because I know a lot of those agencies out there are abusing AI and they are tanking businesses. Just go back and listen to the last couple podcasts, and you're going to see how agencies that are abusing artificial intelligence are destroying businesses that were strong just a year or two ago. We're talking to more and more of these guys. And we're seeing it more often the further we go, that uh these bad practices are not helping businesses, they're hurting businesses. But those lottery tickets in the world of the internet, they just keep on selling. Just got to make the right pitch. So as the owner of a business, you've got to be careful because the temptation is there. And who doesn't want to miss out? You know, people like me, we understand things. Like, you ever heard of FOMO, for example, F-O-M-O? That's called fear of missing out. They prey upon your desire to not miss out on the latest and greatest thing, and maybe that's going to leverage you against your competitors. These are all intentional strategies, and you're going to have to be very careful and very skeptical to survive, or you're just going to keep dumping money into things that are going to continually tank your business strength when it comes to the internet. So the idea is that boring is actually the thing that you want. Now, when I say boring, there's a caveat. Boring's incredible. Boring will build you momentum. Boring takes patience. Boring takes all those things that nobody wants to do. But boring works. Now, the trick, the caveat is you got to work with somebody that you know is going to do the boring the right way. I have met with a lot of businesses lately who have hired agencies that make them think they're doing the boring the right way, and they're not. They're blowing the companies up. So, number one, you want to make sure that they're not abusing AI, and there's a very simple term that you need to know. It's called EEAT. Basically, what that means is the internet loves human authoritative content, not bot content. If you can remember that and ask how they incorporate EEAT practices into their uh pro systems, then that's going to help you out. And guess what? Those AI review responses to Google Business, that's not how you do it. So let's keep moving on here. So the idea is, well, what is the boring here? So one is well, let's just start with website design. I mean, pretty pages is what a lot of us look at, right, as owners of businesses. You know, they uh somebody will show you a template. Uh just go to the do-yourself builders. Pretty pages, pretty designs, pick it, use it. Absolutely the wrong way to go. Structured content and structured pages is much more important because it helps your users find what they're trying to find quicker, it engages people the right way, it sends people to the additional content that they need. While typically pretty websites created by web designers is nonsensical, it's poorly laid out, the call to actions are not correct. And the idea is that the technical and making changes is where the money's at. It's not in those pretty pages. So if you're still buying based on templates, you are making a horrible move because structured pages and following processes is the way to go. It's not very exciting, but it's where the money's at. Now, the other idea is to create service pages that match intent. So, what I mean by that is you want to make sure that when you have any kind of service or product pages, that you're matching the intent of the visitor as closely as you can. Are they shopping? Are they ready to purchase? Can you push them closer to a purchase? How does that work? And how do you do all that stuff ethically? The boring stuff. Local business schemas. If your agency is not talking to you about schemas, they're not doing you justice because this is the big, big thing that every business needs to be focused on these days. Just think schema is a fancy way of organizing content so that artificial intelligence and Google and all these other companies can organize your content and understand it. The more they understand it, the more you're going to show up. The more that momentum builds slowly over time, not quickly. It's not overnight. There is nothing overnight about the internet, not even Google Ads, guys. I've been running Google Ads forever, and the idea is you've got to build that momentum. You've got to clarify messages, landing pages, content. The set it and forget it method is going to do one thing, cost you money. All right. So the idea is that these AI, uh, you know, I'm gonna stick with chat for a while, but there are others out there like Perplexity and Gemini. Um, but the idea is that they want clarity. They want to understand and be able to reference stuff that's trustworthy. Now, if we flipped a coin, Google is also demonetizing AI content because no one wants it. And so by throwing out AI content, you are actually going to hurt your business and your website reputation. Keep in mind, every website has what we call a DA or DR, domain authority, domain rating. Depends on the tool you're using. That is an indicator of how trustworthy and credible your site is. And if you start throwing a bunch of junk content thinking quantity over quality is a good idea, that number will tank. We're seeing it more and more. Uh coincidentally, we have incorporated the real work portion, you know, that boring stuff I'm talking to you about, and we've seen dramatic jumps in domain ratings. So the choice is yours, but chasing the shiny is not the way to go. Okay, momentum is going to beat intensity. Now, we call this the snowball effect because we've all done it when we were kids. We go outside, we want to build a snowman, we start with the snowball, we start rolling it around, and then the snowball gets bigger and bigger over time. That's why we use that term in house. So, you know, one great month, it doesn't mean anything. Um, I've been doing like uh looking really hard at like uh Joe Rogan and Dana White and a lot of these guys with their nutrition, and I'm one of these guys that does crazy things. And uh one of them is when you look at weight loss, and you can consume certain foods and it can retain a pound or two or even three pounds of water, and you think you're eating great but gaining weight. In reality, you're not. You want to look at the big picture when it comes to things like that. Also, just look at it like this. Um, yeah, you can go home and do 50 sit-ups in one night and get nothing out of it because it takes time, it takes consistency. Your diet takes consistency. These programs take consistency, it's really no different. The only problem is people try to sell you this because they know it's what you want. They know you want the quick fix, they know you want that great month, and then they just kind of ride it from month to month to month. It's not, it's all about momentum. Um, one quick point, I do want to tell you that we're working with a pretty large nonprofit, and we're investigating social media ads. And just let you know, they spend a pretty penny on those ads, and it looks like that they were absolutely worthless. Uh, and the the big agency that was running those ads, uh, they can't justify them. And uh so let you know, not just the little guy, sometimes these big agencies, they're just running stuff wholesale. And uh what they do is they cherry pick certain numbers to make you think things are better than they are. Um, so why gaps uh reset trust signals? This is why I'm doing my podcast when our team is partially out today. I'm trying to get a podcast out for uh the week. I'm running late on it. I don't want to create huge gaps in data because data can create trust signal issues. For example, if you're creating content and you've not done it since January of this year and your blog page has dates on it, what does that tell people about the seriousness of your business or the trustworthiness of your business? Probably says you're lacking commitment. And the other thing is if you get in there and it's just a bunch of junk content, then that also doesn't help. I mean, you want to be really focused and dedicated to create meaningful and consistent information over a period of time. Uh, social media, this is another one. You need to get uh very consistent on your social. And so the idea is that this slow momentum over time, it just builds and builds and builds, and pretty soon you get a big snowball, and that snowball is what's going to help you push to the next level and the next level. It's not the gimmicks. Direction maintained over time that's consistent, that's informative, that helps. That's what's going to do the trick. Does the trick for my business, it does the trick for your business. The problem is, again, it's just not as fun as some of the other stuff. So as we move through here, I'm looking through my notes. Uh let's talk about some boring systems that compound quietly over time. One, local listings and citations. This is no longer optional. And no, this is not going into your Google Business profile and changing a couple categories. That's not how you do it. There are now systems that can broadcast your business information across the web consistently. They create what's known as a name, address, and phone number or NAP score consistency. That helps uh basically all the entities on the internet understand that it's the same business and helps through that consistency to build authority. Uh also, there are tools that can help you uh organize your reviews. You should be reviewing anytime you get them, the bad ones, the good ones, all the way down, and not just clicking that AI review response. Call tracking. Oh man, call tracking is huge. Every client that runs call tracking with us, we see so much. And it helps optimize everything. More leads, more calls, more forms, whatever, because we understand what works and doesn't work. You can actually be taken advantage of fairly easy if you do not implement call tracking. Uh, we do that uh with every serious client that we have. Uh when we're not able to, due to their budget constraints, we typically let them know that this is a huge weakness that needs to be addressed. Content. Let's do talk about content that answers one question well. The idea is people are looking for very specific questions. Now, you can guess at those questions, or you can use tools and have your agency provide you with the questions that are really being asked. Then you focus on answering those questions, and then it's put together in what we call a schema, and that schema is easily digestible by artificial intelligence. Is your agency doing that? If they're not, you need to ask why, because they should have been doing this for some time now. Um, of course, user experience improvements. I mean, I can't tell you how many times we'll design something, we think it's great, we run ads or we start looking at what's going on, and we have to make a lot of adjustments. Because remember, it's not form, it's not pleasing family members or the secretary in the office or even high-level people. What it is, is it's all about performance. And a lot of times when you look at the data on the back end, you make a lot of changes. I know we do. And uh it's not from lack of looking because before we ever build it, we look at competitors, we look at what everybody's doing, we look at kind of gentle, anywhere from soft to hard SWOT analysis, SWOT, strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, and we build a game plan, but we still have to change it. Did you have a website built and it still looks the same as it did a month ago or two months ago? Has any changes been done? Are you basing that on any data? If those questions are not coming up with your agency, these are big flags that likely they're setting it and forgetting it. I like using that phrase. It was from a, I forget the um the product. There was one of those late night shows years and years ago, and it had the um set and forget it thing, which uh is great because it's absolutely what you do not do on the internet. And uh by the way, set it and let AI handle it is also really, really, really, really bad. Okay, so let me go through the rest of my notes here. Um man, there's so much here, guys. Um, I'm even thinking about like I I got in my notes here, for example, uh how uh web redesigns can set you back. And they can because uh we had a church and they wanted to uh move to a system because I guess they thought it'd be easier to handle in-house. And man, it it broke my heart. But these guys did not migrate the site correctly, and it negatively impacted their website's reputation because they weren't thinking of things like redirects or what to do with old pages, things like that. So in reality, we have I don't know, 95 96% customer retention rate for over 20 years. We've weathered the storms of different things, um different things. Different trends, transitions, things like that. And we're able to stay on the cusp because we're always looking at what's going on and responding to it, and we're not knee deep in building a system that can't change as the internet is changing. So when you think of that, just think this. Here's a really quick test for you. Are you paying for Google Ads? So how are they running Google Ads if you're paying for ads? Are they running your ads to some landing page in Never Never Land that's not tied to your main website? If so, this is an outdated practice. It's getting worse. It does work to some extent still, but it's dying. And the reason people are defending it is because they've built entire systems around this for years and years and they don't want to let go of it. So here's kind of the take-home today. This is interesting. Is your agency doing the boring stuff that actually matters in a meaningful way? Or are they just shooting it through AI systems, posting blog articles, running ads to uh offshoot landing pages, using templates or do-it-yourself website builders? Are they not helping you understand the things that you need to post, doing the homework on things like FAQs you should be answering, involving you to help you provide those answers so they can be given in a meaningful way? Or are they just kind of putting you on autopilot and making you think that everything is going well? Are they providing you with general reports with no explanations? And are they focused on clicks, number of views, all that stuff that doesn't add to the bottom line? Or are they baking into it meaningful conversions? Have they talked to you about conversions and what those conversions do and why you're tracking those conversions specifically versus others? Because that's teaching Google and these other platforms what your targets are. Some make them look good, some help you make money. Which one's going on? Are they going to war with you? Because this is going to war when you work with the business. It's looking at the ugly, it's understanding certain things don't work, and it's fighting through it. It's not a uh a parade of victory marches. We always have to fight with our clients to get them good results, and we have to balance things like budget, uh, different systems, uh stopping things that they've trusted for years and years, and getting them to rethink other things, making sure that the money goes in the right places and that our clients are not distracted with the shiny object or the next big sales pitch. Is your agency doing these things? And if they're not doing these things, it may be time to reconsider what you're doing and find an agency that's really good at the boring stuff. This is Ken Carroll with Over the Bull. Thank you so much for attending. I really do appreciate listening in, and until next time, to your success.

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